(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to content playback technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to a contents linkage information delivery system which allows a user to receive a related content that is associated with a specific playback position of another content.
(2) Description of the Related Art
With the prevalence of large-capacity recording mediums, it is now common practice to distribute recording mediums storing contents such as music and movies in digital form. Further, the recent prevalence of having a continuous connection to the Internet allows users to acquire, via a communications channel, contents according to their detailed interests. When delivering a content stored on a recording medium, the following advantage may be achieved. That is, with the use of a large-capacity recording medium such as a CD or a DVD, a large amount of contents may be provided all at once in high quality. On the other hand, when delivering a content via a communications channel, the following advantage may be achieved. That is, owing to bidirectional communications offered between users and a content provider by, for example, a WWW service, the content provider can provide contents that closely relates to interests of each user. Accordingly, by appropriately combining the two delivery methods, contents may be delivered taking advantages of both methods. What is important when combining the two methods is how to associate a content provided on a recording medium and a content provided via a communications channel. One known contents linkage technique is to associate an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) content recorded on an optical disc to an HTML content stored on a server (See for example, Japanese unexamined patent application 09-307859. The technique is briefly described below.
HTML contents are basically composed of text data, image data, and link information showing playback procedure of the data. Suppose a recording medium has an HTML content recorded thereon, and a user plays back the HTML content according to the link information recorded on the recording medium. The link information recorded on the recording medium additionally includes links to HTML contents stored on the server which is connected via a communications channel, so that the HTML contents are provided with increased interactivity. With this arrangement, the user can acquire and play back HTML contents listed in the link information recorded on the recording medium. As described above, this technique is to associate an HTML content on a recording medium with related HTML contents on the server using link information contained in the HTML content on the recording medium.